Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first I'd like to speak to the issue of the locums and their qualifications. Every locum we hire who is qualified to practice in the Northwest Territories is registered as a medical doctor. There has been misinformation, deliberate or otherwise, unfortunately, it would appear, that leads people to believe that that is not the case. We've also had the unfortunate occurrence last week during Seniors' Week to have a locum's reputation and capability questioned because of his age. Mr. Speaker, we make every effort to bring in only the best locums we can find, and I would also like to point out that every locum that we have ready to work in the Northwest Territories has worked here before, except one. So they are not strangers here, and they are dedicated professionals, doctors, sworn to uphold their Hippocratic oath, and we're very happy to have them.
Mr. Speaker, I said last week, and I'll repeat, that we do have coverage for obstetrics. We, as well, today, have arranged coverage for pediatrics, we have coverage for general surgery and anesthesiology. So we have the coverage we need to ensure that babies can continue to be delivered here in the Northwest Territories and we're going to keep working on a contingency plan. I would just hope that people would put out the best facts they have, and not cause alarm and not make statements questioning the locums when we know in this House that we don't hire anybody but qualified doctors. We can't. Our rules are very clear. We should not be causing needless apprehension among patients and people, women and pregnant women. This is an issue that's very serious and we are working with the medical community to come up with a contingency plan. The medical directors are involved in the development of that plan and they're all doctors. They're all very qualified and specialists themselves who are involved in the development of this. A fundamental priority for everybody first and foremost, as we work through this labour issue, is to make sure that we have the safety of the patients first and foremost in everybody's minds and that they don't become bargaining chips in a process that does not affect them. Thank you.